


New Traditions

by chellerrific



Category: Bleach
Genre: Future Fic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-27
Updated: 2013-05-27
Packaged: 2017-12-13 04:46:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/820134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chellerrific/pseuds/chellerrific
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A glimpse of a distant future that may or may not come to pass.</p>
            </blockquote>





	New Traditions

“Oh, Captain. Welcome back. Lieutenant Kurosaki was looking for you.”

Toshiro Hitsugaya nodded to the sixth seat who’d delivered the message, carrying on to his office without slowing his pace.

“I thought you were going to get a haircut today,” he said upon entering, by way of a greeting.

Karin Kurosaki was beyond expecting pleasantries from her superior. She absently fingered the end of her long black ponytail. “Oh yeah. Eh. Maybe tomorrow.”

Toshiro suppressed an eye roll. “Maybe tomorrow” had been coming for an exceptionally long time. He wouldn’t even mention it if she weren’t always fiddling with it and saying how it needed to be cut. Maybe he should just do it for her and solve both their problems. “The sixth seat said you were looking for me.”

“Nakamura is the fifth seat. He was promoted three weeks ago. Remember?”

Toshiro tilted his head slightly. “Oh, that’s right.”

“You’re becoming forgetful in your old age,” Karin admonished, her voice so dry he wondered if her throat felt parched.

Toshiro frowned, unamused. He had not been the youngest captain serving for some time now, but he didn’t find “old man” jokes any more amusing than the “little boy” ones had been. It didn’t exactly help that he still got those, too; he may no longer have been the youngest, but he was still the shortest, that long-desired growth spurt forever determined to elude him. Even that pink-haired demon who’d become the twelfth Kenpachi had surpassed him in that regard, to his eternal chagrin. Afterlife was so unfair.

“Anyway, Captain Matsumoto stopped by. She wants to see you for an inter-divisional meeting.”

“A what?” Toshiro still failed to understand his former subordinate ninety-nine percent of the time.

“She wants to drink sake and talk shop with an old friend and write it off as a work expense,” Karin translated.

“Of course she does.” Toshiro rubbed a knot at the back of his neck.

“Rangiku bothering you again?” Karin asked.

Toshiro knew she was no longer talking about his erstwhile lieutenant—she’d named the knot Rangiku. It was something of a misconception among the divisions that the only one with less of a sense of humor than the diminutive captain of the Tenth was his dour-faced second-in-command, but Toshiro knew they had it completely wrong; Karin was so deadpan that her wry remarks simply tended to fly right over most people’s heads. Karin seemed to prefer it that way. It was her best joke of all.

“Why don’t you come along, then?” Toshiro said finally, resigned to Rangiku’s “meeting.” It was better to have Karin with him; he could deflect Rangiku’s attention to her, and Karin was better at managing her anyway.

“Can’t,” Karin said without a trace of apology. “I’ve got—” There was a knock at the door, and she inclined her head towards it. “—other plans. Come in!”

The door opened and a familiar head of fair hair poked itself into the room. “Ready to go, Karin? Ah! Good afternoon, Captain.” Yuzu Kurosaki stepped the rest of the way inside to give him a polite bow.

As twins, Karin and Yuzu had come into the world together, and they’d left it the same way, in a single car accident. It was the kind of poetically tragic thing Edgar Allan Poe might have written about, if he’d written about car accidents.

“Going to lunch, then?” Toshiro said with a sigh, resigning himself to facing Rangiku alone. He could handle it, and it was always possible it would even be a pleasant get-together, but it would be uncharacteristic of him not to assume otherwise.

Yuzu nodded. As in life, she still showed no particular inclination towards spiritual power. She hadn’t been hungry in a very long time. But she always liked to take meals with her family, when she could.

Karin stood up, adjusting the things on her desk slightly before leaving it to join Yuzu. “Ichigo can’t come. He had to leave suddenly this morning. I already promised to kick his ass when he gets back.”

Toshiro was aware he should probably advise her _not_ to threaten violence against captains of other divisions, but he knew better by now than to interfere in Kurosaki family affairs.

Yuzu’s expression was downcast but understanding. “I expected it.” She smiled with great determination. “Oh, well! It’ll just be the two of us again. That’s still a good time in my book. Oh!” She turned to Toshiro apologetically. “Perhaps you’d like to join us, Captain?”

“He can’t,” Karin said before he could answer. “He’s got an appointment to play tonsil hockey with a drunk Matsumoto.”

Toshiro’s hackles went up in spite of himself. Karin was always insinuating things about him and his peers—Rangiku was her favorite choice, probably because it annoyed him the most, but no one was safe, with the sole exception of Momo Hinamori, a line even Karin dared not cross. Karin knew nothing she said was true, she knew he was aware of this knowledge, and she never said it to anyone who would circulate it as a rumor (what good was a rumor no one would believe?) but it got his goat every time. Which, he imagined, was exactly the point.

He just barely managed to choke down the response he knew she wanted. “That’s _Captain_ Matsumoto, Lieutenant,” he said instead, but neither was fooled into thinking he'd won that round. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll be going. It was nice to see you again, Yuzu.”

“You as well, Captain. Take care and have a nice afternoon.” Yuzu gave him another bow, as always all sweetness to her twin’s sour.

“Later, Captain,” was all Karin said, though it was an improvement over what he'd expected.

Toshiro headed back down the hall in the direction he’d come just a short while before. As much of a fuss as he’d made, he almost liked the thought of seeing Rangiku today, as long as she didn’t drink too much. He’d tip the waiter extra to water down the sake. Rangiku would notice but pretend not to, because she knew him well enough by now. She would just be happy he’d come. He supposed he could muster up some happiness of his own in exchange. That was friendship as he understood it, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Shinigami!Karin is something I would step on my granny to see. I like the idea of her going into her daddy’s old division, but deliberately left as much else as ambiguous as possible.
> 
> It is my permanent headcanon until Tite Kubo himself explicitly disabuses me of it that Yachiru will someday be the next Kenpachi. Yeah, that means one day she’ll have to kill Kenny (oh my god!) but I think he would be exceedingly proud and frankly I cannot currently see any other end for him.


End file.
